1. Field of Art
The present invention generally relates to the field of accessing distributed content or applications, and more specifically, to accessing content or applications in response to voice data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional voice services are synchronous and limited to a single service level. Users determine whether to use a conventional voice service well before beginning to use the voice service. For example, a user decides to access voicemail several seconds before dialing a specific number associated with a voicemail service. Because accessing existing voice services requires a specific user interaction, such as dialing a specific phone number, to be accessed, it is impractical to access these conventional voice services during a telephone call with another party. For example, conventional voicemail services do not allow a party to a phone conversation to access voicemail without first ending the phone conversation and placing a separate phone call to access the voicemail.
Additionally, existing voice services are limited to providing single types of services, requiring multiple different voice service providers to be accessed to receive different types of services. While listening to a voicemail or participating in a conversation, existing voice services cannot be accessed to perform additional actions or retrieve additional information associated with the content of the voicemail or conversation. For example, to return a call to a person who has left a voicemail currently being accessed, interaction with the voicemail is terminated and a separate call is initiated to contact the person who left the voicemail. Similarly, if additional information about a topic arising in a phone conversation is needed, such as directions to a location mentioned in the conversation, the phone conversation is terminated so that one of the parties may place a separate call to a voice service to obtain the desired additional information.
Further, conventional voice services do not access information from distributed data sources, such as online or Internet-based applications or distributed storage locations. These distributed data sources have become increasingly popular and accessible from various mobile devices, such as smart phones, netbook computers or laptop computers, but the content and functionality provided by these distributed data sources has not been integrated into voice based communication, preventing voice communication from incorporating a range of data or services into data communication. For example, existing voice services cannot access online data or online account information not previously associated with an audio presentation gateway. Similarly, users are unable to directly communicate data exchanged between two parties in a voice conversation to a distributed data source without use of a dedicated speech recognition application. Currently, separate interfaces are used for exchange of voice data and access to data maintained by a distributed data source.